There’s a weird sort of rivalry brewing between the Kings and the Clippers, that, on the surface, doesn’t seem to make much sense. While L.A. has two current All-Stars and is likely to be a top-four seed when the playoffs begin in a few short weeks, Sacramento is a perennial lottery team with a couple of decent assets, but not much else.

When you look at the way Blake Griffin and DeMarcus Cousins each play the game with a chip on their shoulder, things begin to come into focus.

Griffin and Cousins went at it last Thursday, and the moody Sacramento big man didn’t like the way Griffin was treated by the officials. In his eyes, Blake received the benefit of the doubt far too often, so Cousins called him an “actor,” who “is in L.A. where actors belong.”

“It hurts. It hurts so bad,” Griffin did not say, and never would say under any circumstances.

Not a terribly creative jab from Cousins, and not a terribly offensive one, either. At least not to Griffin, who actually did respond Saturday night after his Clippers beat the Kings for the second time this week.

“Well, I first heard about it from my acting coach. He sent me an e-mail and obviously he was thrilled. It was a complement. I guess he’s seen some commercials and stuff, so I appreciate it. Nah, I don’t care. I’m not into going back and forth and name calling players through the media and all that, just let it go.”

Griffin was then asked if his reaction to Cousins speaks to who he is as a player:

“I mean this in the nicest possible way. You have to consider the source. If this is somebody that’s really has been in the league a long time, and really knows the ins and outs of the game, and has a great reputation for carrying himself the right way, then it’s something I would kind of look at and be like I really rubbed this guy the wrong way, but someone like that you just keep going.”

Cousins was fined by the league for his comments about the way the officials treat Griffin after Thursday’s game, so wisely, he didn’t want to go down that road again on Saturday.

“I’m in enough trouble as it is. … It’s not a (personal) rivalry,” he told reporters afterward. “We’re just playing ball. They’re a playoff team and we’re not, so it’s not much of a rivalry.”

Neither Cousins nor Griffin play a style of basketball that is endearing to anyone but fans of their respective teams. Griffin’s act is a little more widely-accepted due to playing in the large market alongside Chris Paul, and of course for the sensational (if sometimes illegal) way he’s able to dunk over his opponents.

Cousins, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the better rebounders in the game in his young career, and you can see a time in the not too distant future when his overall game takes him to an All-Star level, as well. But his brooding on-court personality is something only his teammates could love, so expect the majority of fans to side with Griffin in this silly back-and-forth that hopefully, mercifully, and thankfully appears to be over.

Tom Benson, the now 90-year-old owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints, a few years back changed around the succession of control of the team after his passing — his wife Gayle will take control. Rita Benson LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter and former handpicked successor, sued saying Benson had been manipulated. After meeting privately with Benson, a judge ruled that while Benson suffered some “cognitive impairment” he was capable of making his own decisions and that Gayle remained the successor.

Benson has been sued multiple times since then, including by former Saints employee Rodney Henry, and the then-89-year-old Benson was deposed in that case last year.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“Who is this?” Williams asked.

“It’s Rodney and a basketball player,” Benson said. “Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he’s a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no.”

When asked “is it Anthony Davis,” Benson said yes. The man is 90, I’m not sure that we should expect much. He had the foresight to bring in people to run his businesses — including his sports teams — and set up a line of succession for when he does pass. Smart moves.

Would Benson’s mental state impact potential changes coming to the Pelicans? Probably not. New Orleans’ GM Dell Demps bet big on going big in a league trending smaller, pairing Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. If that doesn’t work out, plenty of people around the league expect a house cleaning on the basketball side with the Pelicans. Benson’s mental state, whatever it may be, does not impact that.

The deposition leak came from an anonymous source (and anonymous email account, the paper verified the document before publishing). Who leaked it? It may be nearly impossible to find out, but only one side benefits from all this becoming public. And it’s not Benson.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.